Perfect Imperfections
by Captivated Heart
Summary: Can one fall in love with perfection? Nah... McKeller.
1. Rodney

Disclaimer: SGA is owned by MGM.

Perfect Imperfections

She couldn't see it, and maybe she never would. But he didn't seem to care about that. Quite the opposite. She would look at him and raise an eyebrow at his leisurely smile always directed her way but he would say nothing. What was there to say when she couldn't see it?

What she couldn't see was that he had it all. He may have never received a Nobel Prize as of yet but he had everything he could have ever imagined wanting in life and more sitting right across from him, only one smile away.

And God was she beautiful. Her mind just as beautiful as her golden hair and observing brown eyes. Yet she still couldn't see it. What a mystery to entertain. This perfect woman sitting not four feet from him couldn't comprehend that each self-pronounced flaw in herself she pointed out to him made him love her all the more. For it was the flaws, not the perfection, he fell in love with.

Even right now she was mesmerizing him beyond belief. With a table between them with seven other occupants, he had eyes only for the woman subconsciously rotating a pencil on the knuckle of her index finger, a habit she had picked up in college she once told him. He didn't know what it was, maybe the unfocused look, maybe the smooth motions of her hand, but he couldn't understand a thing Woolsey was saying.

But when did that ever matter? Very rarely did the bureaucrat have anything to say of any interest to the physicist. Not like Jennifer whose every word held him captive from his own mind.

It was probably the tone of her voice - light, caressing - that had such an effect on him. Or possibly her mouth, the way it drew itself into a smile of sorts at the end of each sentence.

It had taken months for him to see it, years even, but that made him the lucky one. All of her beautiful imperfections - working too hard for her own good, putting her friends above herself, even crying herself to sleep on occasion – were just the building blocks for something bigger.

Then there were the times when all he could do was think about her whether that entailed worrying about her safety off world or an inability to think of any other subject. The CMO contained so many sides he had rarely seen that there never seemed to be a moment he wasn't pondering a new aspect to his Jennifer. She was an artist, a creator, an optimist, and an interpreter of the soul all in one. She couldn't sing, cook, or swim to save her life but that's what made her Jennifer. That glare of hers could dig him a grave faster than any shovel. And her kisses, they just about killed him with their tenderness, their fire.

Yet he wanted it, he wanted it all. Change any of this and she wouldn't be the woman he loved.

He was lucky to have it all, to have her with all her blemishes of perfection.


	2. Jennifer

Disclaimer: SGA is owned by MGM.

Perfect Imperfections 2

How silly Jennifer had thought her friends to be. Getting caught up in boys much older than them in high school. And now? Staring across the width of the twelve foot mahogany meeting table into the bluest eyes on the base, maybe they had a point. She used to roll her eyes when she caught one of her friends staring without end at some cute guy showing off across the classroom. Now she supposed any of the other seven people around the table could be rolling their eyes at her. They would be right too; this was no way to act during a meeting.

It was still near impossible to focus on anything else. His eyes, if only she could catch them just once. _No, _her rationality kicked in. It was right of course.

Instead, her eyes lowered to the pencil on the table. Picking it up with subtle movements, she started to twirl it upon her finger. That always helped to distract her. Now that she thought about it, what exactly about him distracted her? Well that was a hard question. It seemed like it would take less time to recite pi to the twelfth decimal though she hadn't really thought about it since sophomore year in college at seventeen. That could be one aspect, his vast intelligence. It awed her, inspired her, and could be seen with every expression he graced her with - every wonderful quirk and smirk known to be found on his features only.

Her eyes wandered and momentarily caught Rodney's. A warm smile released from the depths of her leaking restraint and he grinned back. They were being much too open. She could practically feel the Colonel scanning the room with that sucker rolling around in his mouth. Keeping eye contact was too risky even with Mr. Woolsey babbling on about something or another in his official tone he thought demanded everyone's attention.

One last look Rodney's way and then she glanced down to her hands. That didn't help much as it only encouraged thoughts of how well they fit between Rodney's. And how his hands, callous as they were, always warmed them. Perhaps those calluses were what she liked most about his hands. After all, he statistically acquired about ninety percent of them after saving the day at the last possible second. As she recalled, calluses formed on his skilled hands when he saved her life in the Genii mine as well as when he chopped through that thick door with a fairly heavy ax. Yes, she definitely liked his hands.

But without doubt, his everyday work in his infernal labs created the other ten percent. She certainly wished he would cut back on time spent in his labs, especially Janis'. The last time he had promised her a movie – Dr. No, the first Bond movie – he had made them late with his last-minute cataloguing.

Then again, he deserved a break for that one. He had been drinking way too much coffee that day. Enough to keep any regular man up for two days straight. And okay, maybe he drank a little too much coffee daily to be considered, in any definition of the phrase, healthy proportions. But a hypocrite she was not. The endless flow of hot chocolate she had daily didn't exactly evaporate from her body as soon as it passed by her taste buds. She was lucky though, the caffeine did nothing too over the top to her attitude. Rodney, however, rambled left and right once he hit three cups. Quite a bonus if you asked her.

It was just funny how he thought he could handle over six cups on busy days. The arrogance that man displayed was cute, but misplaced. _"It's only my eighth cup, Jennifer. I think I can handle eight cups." _She only smiled when he came in during the beginning of her night shift and quietly asked for sleeping pills. Of course he attributed the insomnia to her absence, the sweet talker. That earned him her most dazzling smile and the promise of a kiss after her shift because she definitely knew what that felt like.

The nights were never quite that cold when she used to stay in her own room every night. When she did now, it felt so empty insomnia would creep up on her too. To be wrapped up in his arms…

"Doctor Keller," Mr. Woolsey tried again as she noticed everyone, Ronon excluded, looking her way.

"Y-yes, sir?" Jennifer answered, trying hard to minimize her surprise.

"I asked if everything was accounted for in the new medical supplies from Command."

"Oh, yes. We have a full inventory again." Her answer was short and sweet as she brought her hands together atop the table.

The base commander answered with a "Very well" and moved on to address Rodney who gave him his full attention for once, the show-off.

* * *

"What was that? No swift kick under the table? No 'Hey Jennifer, it's your turn to listen to the boring monotone?'" Jennifer asked once they reached Rodney's quarters.

"You're kidding, right? That table is four feet wide. My legs aren't that long." His arm reached around her shoulder to pull her close to his side as they stepped through the doorway. "Besides, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see your reaction. That face? Priceless."

"Your face can be pretty priceless at times too, you know," Jennifer weakly rebutted in a tone all too indicative of annoyance.

A grin plastered to his face, Rodney massaged her waist and added in a rhythmic voice, "My girl's a daydreamer. What, pray tell, could she have been thinking about?" The arrogance was astounding, his eyes positively glinting with it.

"Roderick. The first guy I ever made out with." She let that sink in a bit and then added in the most nonchalant voice she could muster, "But only the once. The ego on that man, I swear. One of his biggest flaws if you ask me."

Jennifer waited a full two seconds, her features as straight and serious as they had been for her job interview into the Stargate program. After that, she chanced a look behind her in the most subtle manner possible. The look she found stunned her into giggling, erasing all subtlety. Rodney's entire stance showcased hurt and she could do nothing but laugh and offer him an apologetic peck of a kiss.

Finally he put his open mouth to use. "So you only picked me for my similar name and respectably-sized ego?"

The giggle and smile dropped from Jennifer's expression as she adopted an incredulous look. "About the size of Jupiter then."

"Hm?" His smile was back in place, smug as ever.

"Your definition of respectably-sized is about the size of Jupiter," she explained with the same look of disbelief he left on her features after suggesting a picnic under the stars.

He didn't even mull the words over before answering, "I was thinking more like Neptune. With maybe a couple hundred meteors for good measure."

"His name was really Derrick," Jennifer replied, well beyond annoyance. Could anything get at this stubborn man?

"Was he a good kisser?" Rodney asked with a perfect fake of genuine curiosity.

"The best," she drew out slowly, luxuriously.

His lips raised higher, not even the least bit put out. "The best how?" His individual fingers at her waist kneaded the flesh beneath them and drew her softly against him.

"Do you really want me to tell you?" Her bristling voice of concrete conviction faltered at the touch of his physique against hers.

He seemed to think a moment, "Nah." His eyes went from a seawater cerulean to a deep, almost fiery ocean current blue. "How about you show me."

Even then, as she all too gladly took a hold of the sides of his chin and lower cheeks to guide him to her waiting lips, she couldn't help but think not even his arrogance could be listed as a fault anymore. Her callous-creating, coffee-craving, headache-inducing man was perfect.


End file.
